Category Archives: Podcasts

Love scary stories? History? Aaron Mahnke’s Lore podcast is for you. Each episode details horrific historical incidents, ranging far and wide across numerous countries and time periods. These biweekly episodes clock in at around 25 minutes each, making them perfect for those days you don’t have large blocks of time to set aside to listen to longer shows.

From some of the earliest recorded accounts of serial killers to a man stranded for months in a tiny room with a corpse, the stories are as varied as they are macabre. There are stories the average listener has never heard of as well as quite a few deconstructions of the likely origins for popular myths and urban legends.

While Mahnke doesn’t get too gory with the details, be advised that the subject matter is inherently gruesome and may not be suitable for younger listeners. And please beware: listening to this podcast could have grave and disastrous effects on your wallet as you get more and more overwhelming urges to buy out you local bookstore’s history section. You have been warned.

The audio production aspects are professional quality and the narration is smooth and pleasant.

To paraphrase a bit from their introduction at the beginning of the episode, Lattes With Leia aims to be an inclusive show free of the “true fan” mentality that can be so repressive in some fandom circles. It will focus on the female point of view. Rather than chasing down all the latest news, it will be more of a conversation about the fandom and the deeper meaning of the stories and characters.

As someone who tries to balance staying spoiler-free with finding places online to discuss Star Wars, I’m glad to have a podcast that will offer an emphasis on discussing existing elements rather than focusing on obsessing over every scrap of news regarding the upcoming films. And having followed Amy on Twitter for several years, I feel confident in assuring people that if and when they do discuss any of the upcoming films, she’s the type to fact-check and squash rumors when people on social media start getting carried away with repeating un-sourced speculation as fact.

The first episode, A Rey Of Hope, focused–as you might have guessed–on Rey. I enjoyed in particular the psychological underpinnings of the character rounding out the discussion and providing extra layers.

At an hour long, it was a good length for the show: enough time to really sink their teeth into the topic at hand and short enough not to drag on. The only negative I can report is that the premiere episode of Lattes With Leia will make you want to open your wallet and head back to the theater for another viewing of The Force Awakens.

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It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of The Black Tapes podcast. I was thrilled to discover that the same creators have another podcast in a similar vein called Tanis.

This show revolves around a podcaster, Nic Silver (who is a familiar name to Black Tapes fans), who begins unraveling the puzzle around a mysterious concept known as–you guessed it–Tanis. I think much of the appeal lies in the main character’s reason for delving into the mystery of Tanis. He explains that the internet has often made it seem as if there’s no real sense of mystery left in the world; some time on Google can make you an expert in almost any subject imaginable. With information so readily available, he is excited to find a mysterious subject that can’t be Googled.

Nic is occasionally joined by a hacker named “Meerkatnip,” who is his primary source of information about the Tanis mystery, as almost nothing about it is readily available on the internet. The two have good on air chemistry and play well off one another as they travel further down the rabbit hole. There’s also a few guest appearances by Alex Reagan.

In terms of technical details, they have the same high production quality that was a hallmark of The Black Tapes. It’s nice to hear professional quality recording in podcasts and it genuinely helps with the sense of immersion.

From the official site:

Tanis is a bi-weekly podcast from the creators of Pacific Northwest Stories, and is hosted by Nic Silver. Tanis is a serialized docudrama about a fascinating and surprising mystery: the myth of Tanis.

Tanis is an exploration of the nature of truth, conspiracy, and information.

Tanis is what happens when the lines of science and fiction start to blur…

The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that where The Black Tapes has a more straight up horror feel, Tanis is a bit more focused on the mystery. While there is a lot of danger and supernatural elements, it’s not necessarily scary in the way The Black Tapes is.

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I have to state up front that The Black Tapes isn’t a podcast best listened to while browsing, gaming, or multitasking. I tried to get into this podcast several times and failed before I fell completely and utterly in love with it. Finally I decided to give it a try without three or four other things dividing my attention and the difference was night and day. This is a story that thrives on the eerie atmosphere it creates, and like the great radio dramas of yesteryear, the listener has to do their part and use some good old fashioned imagination.

The Black Tapes is a podcast about Alex Reagan, a digital radio journalist trying to start a series about people with interesting jobs. The first people she profiles are a group of ghost hunters and paranormal researchers. As the events of the first few episodes unfold, Alex and her producer decide to shift the focus of the podcast from a variety of people and careers to researching the mysterious Black Tapes she comes across when interviewing the famous skeptic Dr. Strand.

Via the podast’s website, the story is:

a serialized docudrama about one journalist’s search for truth, her enigmatic subject’s mysterious past, and the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt them both.

The production values and voice acting are both excellent and highly professional. The enigmatic Dr. Strand in particular has a compelling and rich voice that makes the listener eager for every line. He’s the sort of voice actor who could read the phone book and make it sound exciting.

I only have a few minor criticisms. At times indistinct sound effects take place before Alex explains what is going on, leading the listener to imagine the actors doing something much different from what actually happens. Now, that’s not a bad thing when they use it for suspense and humor. But on several occasions it happened for what seemed to be no narrative purpose. For example, after heated words were exchanged at one point, there are sounds like footsteps across floorboards and a door opening, seeming to suggest that one character was storming out, only for the listener to belatedly be informed that the characters were simply entering another room all together.

The only other minor criticism is that Alex’s introductory descriptions seem to veer slightly into purple prose territory on occasion, trying a little too hard to paint a picture. Generally speaking I think listeners will imagine a character’s appearance to fit the voice on their own, especially as the scenes progress and they forget the detailed descriptions they were fed. The descriptions of people often feel slightly at odds with the rest of the podcast. It’s not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the show, however.

It’s been a long time since a scary story has gripped me as tightly as the Black Tapes has. Give it a listen in a darkened room with a quality headset or sound system and be prepared for chills and thrills.

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Welcome To Night Vale, a podcast in the style of old-time radio dramas, experienced a surge of Tumblr-driven popularity over the summer. It went from being relatively unknown to the #1 podcast on iTunes. This always quirky, often creepy podcast is set in a fictional town called Night Vale, and consists of radio announcements that combine Lovecraftian monstrosities with a shadowy, Kafkaesque local government whose edicts are carried out by “the Sheriff’s Secret Police.” Floating cats, angels, five-headed dragons running for public office, and strange glowing clouds that spew dead animals are among the more benign occurrences in Night Vale. If you’ve been looking for an original, humorous podcast to add to your life, this is it.